Reason for Movie Star’s Divorce Finally Revealed

Like many people, when I first heard the news (six months ago) that two-time Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank and her husband, actor Chad Lowe were separating I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that after nearly 14 years together they were calling it quits. I know, I know, why should I be surprised to hear that yet another Hollywood marriage was biting the dust? I suppose I thought their union was “different.” After all, wasn’t it Lowe who tearfully watched from the audience as Swank accepted not one, but two Oscars. I watched him blow kisses from his seat while … Continue reading →

Scarlett Johansson – Classic Young Starlet

Scarlett Johansson is one of my favorite young actresses. She was born on November 22, 1984 (about a month before I graduated from college!) in Manhattan. By the time she was three, she had discovered acting, but she didn’t get her first film role until she was ten years old when she appeared in North. It was a short part as were her next three roles in Just Cause, If Lucy Fell , and Fall, but she was already showing a special something in her acting. Her role in Manny & Lo in 1996 won her an Independent Spirit nomination … Continue reading →

Julie Garwood – Never a Killjoy

A friend of mine told me to check out Julie Garwood because we shared a mutual love for J.D Robb (also known as Nora Roberts.) The first book of hers that I read was entitled Heartbreaker and I’ve never looked book. Garwood started writing seriously after her youngest child entered the 1st grade. An Irish storyteller at heart, Garwood is the author of over seventeen New York Times bestsellers. Like other romantic authors before her, she’s made the leap to the romantic thriller. Page turners that demand the reader’s attention. Her recent thrillers begin with the tale in Heartbreaker and … Continue reading →

Kay Hooper – Special Crimes Unit and Much More

Another favored author of mine is named Kay Hooper. She sold her first novel in 1980. She was just 22 years old. Since then she’s written more than 60 novels. Among some of her more popular novels are the SCU books that feature Bishop and his agents of paranormal ability. There are 8 books in the series so far with the ninth due out this summer. Hooper was born at an air force base hospital in California. She was raised and went to school in North Carolina. The oldest of three children, Hooper has a younger brother and sister. Hooper … Continue reading →

Nora Roberts – A Prolific Profile

I’ve been reading Nora Roberts for years. I remember the very first book of hers that I read when I was 10 or 12 years old. It was a Silhouette romance that my grandmother purchased. At the time, I had no idea what a powerful and powerhouse of a writer this woman would become in the course of my lifetime. Nora Roberts and in her guise as J.D. Robb is a publishing phenomenon. In 2003, she had 6 books on the New York Best Seller List. There are 75 million copies of her books in print and she’s authored over … Continue reading →

A Million Little Dishonest Pieces?

James Frey’s best-selling personal memoir of addiction and personal redemption is once again the subject of much controversy. Frey appeared on Larry King recently to face charges that some of the parts in his book were fabricated. Oprah herself called into the King show to defend the man whose book she had chosen for the most coveted “Book of the Month.” On her own show recently, she faced Frey head on with the claim that he was “the man who duped Oprah” and told him and the world about how embarrassed she was by the whole situation. “Someone”, she said, … Continue reading →

Robert Mitchum: Bad Boy and Unlikely Hero

Born on August 6, 1917, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, this bad boy screen legend had an unlikely start in life. One of two children, his father was a railroad worker who died in a train accident when he was two years old. His mother and stepfather, who was a British Army major and perhaps the first object of his contempt for authority, raised him and his brother, John. He was a rebellious and truculent teen and he spent many of his early years on the open road. At the age of 14, he was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to a … Continue reading →

Cary Grant: The British Dreamboat

When an interviewer once told Cary Grant that everybody would like to be him, he replied that “so would he.” Born in Bristol, England as Archibald Alexander Leach on January 18, 1904, his life would have been quite ordinary if his mother hadn’t been placed in a mental institution when he was only nine. He was never told the truth, and at age 14 left school. He was largely self-educated and remained a voracious reader throughout his life. He forged his father’s signature on a letter to join a group of British knockabout comedians called The Bob Pender Comedy Troupe. … Continue reading →

Rope: Most Interesting Hitchcock Diversion

Produced in 1948, this Hitchcock thriller is quite different from others created by the golden genius of the master of suspense. All the action is confined to one room, and there is a lack of real tension, which is almost unheard of in a Hitchcock production. This film was very loosely based on the real life case of Leopold and Loeb; the two University of Chicago students in the 1920s who committed a murder as intellectuals just to see what it feels like. (And in the manner of intellectuals who commit murder, they were prosecuted.) The film lasts 80 minutes, … Continue reading →

A Million Little Imaginative (?) Pieces

Is there anyone out there in blog land who hasn’t heard of the raging number one best seller that is the talk of every town in this country, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey? It’s as well known as its promoter, Oprah Winfrey, who turns everything she touches into pure gold. Frey hit the Mother Lode when Oprah gave his book more than a good start by selecting it as her book of the month. The story of one man’s struggle with drugs and alcoholism, it is hailed as an honest, courageous and riveting memoir that one cannot put … Continue reading →